Archie Bunker's Army

Not everyone is bubbling with enthusiasm at the thought of Reyes hitting third, despite a rather exciting debut in that slot the other day against the Marlins. Here's a bit of interesting insight on Jose Reyes' mindset from teammate Jose Valentin but even more telling was an anonymous source on the Mets quoted as remarking with respect to Jerry's threat to hit Reyes third: "He's at his best when he's not thinking too much at the plate," was the way one Mets person put it. "He's gotten better at getting on base, but sometimes has a tendency - he takes good pitches to hit and then swings at bad ones. Then he gets frustrated and before you know it, he's in a slump. None of this speaks very much to Reyes' maturity or intelligence as a baseball player. Not that any of this is really much of a surprise to anyone in any event but one does wonder if Jerry's little mind games are going to be able to soak in through Jose's ADD-addled head...

"I love the energy that Jose Reyes brings, but I don't always like the anxiety that comes with it. I want to calm that down. He needs to play at jazz time. And he's playing at a hip-hop level. I want him to the best jazz player he can be." I just couldn't help it, this quote is one of the best quotes from a baseball manager in a long time. Is Reyes ready to make his move? And that's not just because Reyes hit a grand slam, another homer and drove in six runs from his new number three spot whilst the Mets were pounding the Marlins 9-0 yesterday. I mean if anything, beating the crap out of the Marlins in February just underscores the futility of having them drop the Mets out of the play-offs the last two Septembers running. When the Mets win meaningful games in September and drop the stigma of being choke artists will be the time to get excited. Right now, this is just a painful reminder of all they haven't done the last two years. And whilst these first...

Whilst it isn't the intention of the Army to digest and regurgitate every single pitch and at-bat of every split-squad game against MLB teams and university sides this Spring Training, yesterday was, as they say, special doins' it being the very first game of 2009 and all from which the tiniest impressions of the future may or may not be extracted. And from the 9-3 inaugural victory over the lowly Baltimore Orioles one might allow oneself to feel ever so slightly encouraging. Jerry did. My, how he gushed. "Very, very huge for us," Manuel effused either with relief or the dementia of a man whose head has baked too long in the Florida sun. It WAS after all, just a Spring Training game. Ok, the two batters who under the brightest spotlight this Spring, namely Luis Castillo and Ryan Church , both started and shined combining for 4 hits and 7 RBIs, a dream beginning. Now granted, this is against some sorry Oriole pitching, the majority of which isn't likely to se...

One thing for certain, Jerry Manuel isn't waiting to see what's going to happen before reacting. Whilst it's been pretty much common knowledge all winter that in the absence of Dream Team Left Fielder Manny Ramirez joining the club, left field was going to see a platoon of last season's surprising AA call-up Danny Murphy and last season's surprising out-of-nowhere return of Fernando Tatis . I mean, barring any horrible implosion by one of them this wasn't simply pencilled in, this seemed to be carved in stone as a good idea. Not any more. Jerry dropped the bombshell that Murph is going to be the every day left fielder : "I don't want him to get into a strictly platoon situation," Manuel said. "I think he's a little better player than that. Also, with Church being a lefthanded hitter, I kind of see Murphy being a better hitter right now at this time, so Tatis could go that way [in rightfield]. It all depends on how well they're doing...

Yea, yea. It's all good and well to be thinking about Jose Reyes getting smuggled down to third in the order whilst auld Crazy Legs Castillo is slotted up to the lead off spot and Jose has to hear about it from his homeys in Dominican instead of from Jerry. It's interesting in a pedestrian sort of way to hear JJ Putz , (which understandably, he prefers pronounced "Puts" like shot puts rather than Putz, like the derogatory noun) likes AC DC but doesn't like bagels...all this little getting to know your team sort of information that fills in all that dead time during Spring Training muscle memory training. It's also reasonably fascinating to find out how Jerry had them out there hitting 80 breaking balls a piece to the opposite field, promoting hand/eye coordination, hand strength and taking the body out of the swing. But so far the most interesting facet of this Spring Training coverage is the discovery of Lolita Lopez , who I spotted for the first time sea...

Yes, kids, I know, it's only the fledgling days of Spring Training and we shouldn't be getting our metaphorical panties in a bunch just yet with excitement about the potential rejuvenation of Luis Castillo but if you watch, you almost can't help but get excited: Now, what you want to be aware of, in addition to the gimp knees, is that Castillo has gone to the trouble of LOSING 17 POUNDS from last season . Sure, you might say, wtf, when you're as fat as Luis Castillo was last season, losing 30 pounds would barely register, but the pernt is of course that he's trying to show us his commitment. He even appears to be wide awake. Mostly. Hell, I don't want to spend all season making Castillo jokes, I really don't. I'd like to be writing about him being the Comeback Player of the Year , and because it's early well, we can always dream. And speaking of infields, if in fact I was speaking rather than only referring to them subliminally, you migh...

Although A-Rod, thankfully does not play for the Mets and the Mets are happily basking in anonymity whilst the massive klieg light of A-Rod's dog and pony steroid show trundles forward, it's virtually impossible, after listening to that comedic little press conference today, to think too hard this early about who will wind up the 5th starter for the Mets and whether Jose Reyes will ever return and leave his newborn daughter behind to bat third for the Mets. So my apologies for blaspheming these pages with a little tidbit about A-Rod and the Yank-Mees, but today, front and centre, The Young and Stupid Defence simply must take precedent. ***** late addition: couldn't help but notice Beltran's public exhortation to "kill" Cole Hamels . Presumably he intends that metaphorically but the spirit is exciting. Can't wait for Hamel's first Bankrupt Park appearance. Speaking of Bankrupt Park, came across these very chilling Chopper 800 photos of the destructio...

My, my. How time flies. Seems like only yesterday we were watching the Mets stumble with a lead we always sort of assumed they would lose, watching the bullpen disintegrate night after night, watching the NL Playoffs for a second season in a row with no real rooting interest other than for anyone who was playing the Phillies. Now here we are, Spring Training camp open, the fun about to begin all over again. Or the misery, depending on how optimistically you are capable of performing in these early days despite the last two Septembers. So let's go to the video tape, so to speak and hash it out, John McLaughlin-style : Issue One: Is Jerry Taking The Piss Or Is He Really Thinking About Dropping Reyes Down to Third in the Order and Moving Senor Somnambulism into the Leadoff Spot??! - there's a wide ranging lack of consensus on this from hmmm, so weird it might actually work to are you fucking kidding me? schools of thought. Here's the Army's take: Firstly, it might no...

I suppose once they'd let the Braves shoot their wad signing Derek Lowe this day was inevitable all along. (Bore me a river...) Oliver Perez is coming back to the Mets for a "reasonable" 3 years and $36 million. On the excitement scale, this is like watching paint dry or a back-to-back showing of The English Patient. On the sanity scale, it's like entrusting your young child to a day care assistant with a history of untreated schizophrenia. Let's face it, for this kind of money, Perez, whether we like it or not, whether the Mets admit it or not, is now the de facto Number Two pitcher in the rotation. You lay out all the accolades you want about Pelf or Maine but in that pair you've got a guy who if we're lucky, will mirror the career of let's say John Lackey , (and that's assuming he can make the leap to two consecutive 200 IP seasons after more than doubling the number of games started last season) and another guy coming off of arthroscopic...